Decoding Disruption: A Decision Model Canvas for Planning

1. Summary

In the Gigaom Research Note “Decoding Disruption: 4 Frameworks for Understanding Industry Change,” we identified four additional types of disruption to add to the classic paradigm described by Clayton Christensen. These were new ways that enterprises were taking a deliberately disruptive approach to their markets. The objective of this report is to consider how companies can use the new approaches in a systematic way to reshape markets.

We will do this through a Decision Model Canvas for disruption. That is, a visual representation of how to manage the planning and execution of disruptive strategies. Business and technology leaders at large and small companies alike can use this canvas to map out company strategies and processes, and communicate the results to their team, their investors, and their partners.

Key findings of our analysis include the following:

• Many companies fail to take advantage of disruptive forces because of their traditional financial planning methods, slow decision-making process, and senior management’s distance. The Decision Model Canvas can help address all of those.
• Technology is not necessarily the key driver of disruption – new social arrangements around work are an essential ingredient and so too is a systematic approach to disruption as strategy.
• The attention given to business model innovation is often misplaced; where companies need to focus their attention is business process. Process does not need to imply business process outsourcing or radical changes in the supply chain – it can be as simple as a new participative (or crowd-based) strategy process or as radical as refocusing the company on platforms.
• The Decision Model Canvas will look at seven activities that companies go through when developing a disruption strategy. This is an overall picture that illustrates the need for new analysis, new competencies and new decision-making models, and guides readers through the essential questions they should ask at each step.

Decision Model Canvas for Disruption Planning

Source: Gigaom Research, Haydn Shaughnessy